Commentaries on Relationship Marketing: The Present and Future of Customer Relationships in Services

Abstract

Services and relationship marketing are inextricably linked, such that the intangible, heterogeneous, inseparable, and perishable nature of services renders strong relational bonds between companies and customers particularly critical. Four high-level strategies observed in current business practice bear the potential of fundamentally altering how service providers build and nurture relationships with their customers. Specifically, customer relationships in services have become more (1) data-based, (2) subscription-based, (3) sharing-based, and (4) experiences-based. This curated set of invited commentaries brings together a group of internationally renowned scholars to enhance our understanding of each of these important developments and consider their relationship marketing implications. In four commentaries, our contributor teams share their informed perspectives and offer rich sources of inspiration for both service researchers and managers.